Another question - sorry!

Yesterday I received a letter which was from BBVA, addressed to my mum who died in January. I haven't yet told them she has died, as I haven't sorted the property in Spain out yet ( next month I will do it) and all the standing orders come out of that account. I thought the letter was just publicity ( woefully ignorant of Spanish language!!) but now reading one of the post on here, I think it is probably about confirming her identity by the end of April. Obviously I have a couple of problems here! Firstly, she is dead and secondly I won't be in Spain until May. Any ideas on what to do? I need the standing orders to go out until I can set up a new account in my name in May.

Thanks.

Don't understand why you thought you had to " sort the property out" before informing bank, etc of your mother's death, as the property can't be sorted until other things have been dine.

You should have registered your mother's death, at the time, and you should have informed the bank so that the direct debits for utilities could be paid from your account, which you would have had to have to set up. New contracts for electricity and water will have to be set up in your name..

your mothers account will be frozen, as it should have been when she died, as it is part of the inheritance, and the money cannot be claimed till it is sorted out.

You cannot sell out the property  in Spain until the inheritance tax issue has been sorted.

you cannot sell the house to pay the tax which must be paid within 6 months, or interest will be added

Teesdale, you need the help of an English speaking Spanish gestoria because there is absolutely no way you can sort this issue.  Maybe a friend or neighbour of your late mother can assist as it seems someone is forwarding her post to you.    Who registered the death ? Were you or anyone else  given a POA by your late mother?  

So many questions need answering before anyone can give you responsible info.

Google for an English speaking gestoria in Santiago de la Ribera. Plenty came up when I googled.

Direct debits will be paid for May so think you should leave informing the bank until then as you will need to show the bank the death certificate plus prove you have the power to attend to your late mothers estate. 

Either way the account will be frozen by the bank. If the bank is told of the death or the identity is not proven. The latter is a procedural EU rule for older account holders who have not produced ID.

If I were the OP I would wait until he can come out to Spain to sort it out then see a decent lawyer. Unless there is a mortgage the worst that can happen is the utilities might be disconnected.

If the property is in Murcia the OP is unfortunately facing a large IH tax bill.

I was wondering did the mother have her pensions paid into the Spanish bank  in order to pay IBI and utilities, and if so, were they cancelled on death?

Thank you for your replies. Firstly, I didn't think I had to sort the property out before informing the bank - I plan to do both things on my visit to Spain at the start of next month. The reason I haven't acted on either before is, simply, I haven't had the opportunity to come to Spain and don't have anyone in Spain who can act for me.

I have found a lawyer and have already forwarded information to them to enable them to start to sort out the inheritance of the house. I fully realise the tax situation and that it should be paid in 6 months - not much I can do about either of those things - if I have to pay interest, so be it. My mother wasn't a Spanish resident - the house is purely for holidays, so she didn't have any pension paid into the bank account. It was only used to pay standing orders, which is why I didn't want to have it closed before I could arrange to have another opened in my name. I am seeing the lawyer as soon as I arrive in Spain and will move on from there.

I am sure that I'm not the first person to not be able to sort all this stuff out straight away when the person who dies doesn't live in Spain and neither do I!! in a perfect world it would all have gone as Campasol says it should, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

Teesdale, communicate the death of your mother to the Bank ( with death certificate) and request them to grant to you an extension of the deadline